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ISSUE 80 July 2024
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News
Features
- Review and Regeneration of Anzac Parade, Canberra
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- Ranelagh Estate: 2025 will mark the centenary of Ranelagh Estate, Melbourne
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Welcome!
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Welcome to the Walter Burley Griffin Society’s inaugural online newsletter. This is the 80th News Update since the Society’s foundation in 1988. We hope you enjoy this new format.
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Click here to join the Society or renew your membership. Membership will entitle you to receive future newsletters and priority notification of, and discounts to the Society’s events.
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Coming events
Essendon Incinerator
A Modern Engineering and Design Marvel
On Sunday 28 July 2024, Essendon Incinerator will have open access from 11.00am to 4pm, as part of Open House Melbourne.
Address: 180 Holmes Road, Aberfeldie, Melbourne
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Designed in 1930 by Walter Burley Griffin and Eric Nicholls, the building and its incinerators stand as a pioneering and intact example of the successful integration of advanced engineering and innovative design.
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Tours run 11am + 12pm for 30 minutes in groups of 50. Also presentation by metallurgical engineer Jim Happ at 1pm followed by a tour (max 25 people). No bookings required but tour group capacity is limited and operates on a first-come, first-served basis.
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Walter Burley Griffin Society of America
Annual meeting in Wisconsin
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The Society’s sister organisation in USA, the Walter Burley Griffin Society of America will hold its 23rd annual meeting on 14 and 15 September in southern Wisconsin, USA. The Saturday morning session will be at the Lake Geneva Country Club, Lake Geneva. Several sites will be visited ending at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Jones estate “Penwern” at Lake Delavan.
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On the Sunday morning plans are being made to visit Griffin’s only building in Wisconsin, the Jenks Summer House, designed in 1907 for Chancellor Livingston Jenks on the shore of Lauderdale Lakes, a few miles north of Delavan Lake. For further information contact info@WBGriffinSociety.org
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Recent Events
In May, three fabulous Griffin-themed events (see below) were presented as part of the National Trust Australian Heritage Festival 2024.
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Two Griffin Open Houses and Guided Walk
On Saturday 4 May the Society organised “Two Griffin Open Houses and Guided Walk” at Castlecrag with both the recently restored Duncan and Felstead houses generously opened by their owners.
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The event also included guided walks between the two houses discovering this unique Middle Harbour peninsula and its distinctive walkway and reserve network where the guiding Griffin principle was for the buildings to be subordinate to the landscape.
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Some of the attendees appreciating the recently restored Duncan House, featuring knitlock with castellations and French doors, anchored by sandstone corner piers, 4 May 2024. Photographed by Adrienne Kabos
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The Paradise Plan
Also on the same day, 4 May, “The Paradise Plan”, a delightful short film connecting the Griffins, Canberra and Castlecrag was screened in the Marion Mahony Griffin Hall, Glenaeon School, Castlecrag. The film is a whimsical history of the Griffins' work in Canberra and Castlecrag. It features the gigante puppets of Walter and Marion, the “actors” in the film, on their departure from the National Museum of Australia after 12 years on display. The film was written and directed by Lindy Batterham with music by Oli Chang, and jointly funded by Willoughby City Council and the Castlecrag Progress Association.
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Remembering Max Dupain
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On Saturday 18 May “Remembering Max Dupain” was held at a private home in St Ives, Sydney with a fascinating talk by architectural photographer Eric Sierins, who joined Max Dupain & Associates in 1989. Through his illustrated talk, Sierins shared his memories and photographs of working with this renowned Australian photographer. This included some well known and lesser well-known architectural photographs taken by Dupain of his house in The Scarp, Castlecrag, designed by modernist Australian architect Arthur Baldwinson. Dupain and his family lived here from 1953 until his death in 1992. Another highlight was viewing Dupain's night portraits of Angophoras.
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Also on display at this event were Dupain photographs of a selection of the Griffin homes at Castlecrag. These unique fine art prints were made in the dark room from the Dupain original negatives by Sierins and were for sale to raise funds for the sculpture to honour Marion Mahony Griffin.
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News
Sculpture to honour Marion Mahony Griffin at Castlecrag
nearing completion
Exciting news - the construction of the sculpture to honour Marion Mahony Griffin by sculptor Sandra Pitkin is nearing completion.
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The two recent events held in May generated funds, adding to the generous donations made by many of the Society’s members and friends over the last couple of years, making production of the sculpture possible by closing the shortfall caused by the lengthy delays that resulted in increased costs of the copper and stainless steel materials, transportation and engineering consultancy.
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Willoughby City Council will shortly create a tiny pocket park replacing just two of the car spaces in the carpark at the corner of The Postern and Edinburgh Road, Castlecrag with attractive landscaping. The sculpture to celebrate Marion Mahony Griffin will be located in this landscaped pocket park.
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We will soon begin planning an event for the unveiling of the sculpture later this year.
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At the studio of artist Sandra Pitkin, the sculpture to honour Marion Mahony Griffin is nearing completion. Here Sandra is at work braising the copper connections, June 2024. Photographs courtesy Sandra Pitkin
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NCA announces the Griffins will be celebrated with a commemorative artwork in Canberra
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The Society’s Canberra Chapter has long advocated for a sculpture to celebrate the Griffins, and is very pleased that in February this year, the National Capital Authority (NCA) announced the commissioning of a commemorative artwork to honour the Griffins in Canberra. Stay up to date with news of the progress of this exciting project at the NCA website: https://www.nca.gov.au/commemoration-marion-mahony-griffin-and-walter-burley-griffin
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As stated on the website: “In December 2023, the NCA Board approved funding for procurement of a commemoration of Marion Mahony and Walter Burley Griffin. The commemoration will recognise the contribution the two architects made to the design of Canberra - the national capital. It will also acknowledge the broader contribution of the Griffins to city planning, architecture, and landscape design. … An advisory panel has been established to provide specialist knowledge and guidance to the project”.
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While there have been several attempts to pay tribute to the Griffins’ work in Canberra, the NCA is now committed to have a commemoration in place by 2026.
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The Griffin Centre, Castlecrag heritage listed
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The Society is pleased to report that the Griffin Centre at 120 Edinburgh Road, Castlecrag has been recognised for its heritage significance and placed onto Willoughby City Council’s recently revised Local Environment Plan (WLEP).
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Photo of the Griffin Centre published in 'Castlecrag Album' a promotional booklet produced by GSDA about 1925
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Griffin Centre shops, 2019. Photograph Adrienne Kabos
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The Griffin Centre was built in 1925 to plans approved by Walter Burley Griffin, and was integral to the Griffins’ plan for a self-sufficient community at Castlecrag. The Griffin Centre’s original four shops at street level (one extra shop was added fifty years ago), with a bakery beneath, gracefully follow the curve of the original roadway of The Postern at the intersection with Edinburgh Road.
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Threatened with rezoning to 3 storeys rather than its single storey above Edinburgh Road, the Society engaged heritage architect Scott Robertson of Robertson & Hindmarsh in early 2019 to prepare a heritage study of the Griffin Centre. The Society presented the heritage study to Mayor Gail Giles-Gidney and then to the Council.
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So it is very pleasing that the Griffin Centre was, in 2023, added as a heritage item to Willoughby City Council’s WLEP.
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The first victory won, but the battle continues -
NSW Government Planning Reform to deliver more housing
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In December 2023, the NSW government put on exhibition for public comment a hastily prepared suite of very major and complex reforms to the state’s planning system: ‘Transport Oriented Development (TOD) Program’ and ‘Changes to create low and mid-rise housing’.
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New Transport Orientated Development program
A Transport Oriented Development (TOD) Program took effect on 13 May 2024. Due to probably a great number of public objections to the proposal to turn off relevant heritage controls around identified train/metro stations, no special override of heritage provisions has been enacted as part of the new reform.
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Still, this reform delivers a blanket up-zoning of land around 18 rail/metro stations, including Killara station that is close to the Griffin designed Cameron House. The new rules override councils’ planning controls and permit 22 to 24 metres (approx. 6 storey) high development within a 400 metre radius of 18 train stations in Sydney in all residential zones and E1 Local centres zone.
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Map from Housing SEPP with the hatched areas indicating' Transport Oriented Development Area". The red spot indicates the Cameron House at 33 Marian Street, Killara
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On the positive side, the Government’s non-legal summary of its reforms says that ‘applications in heritage conservation area will continue to be lodged with and assessed by councils’. The Government also says that ‘any new development needs to improve and enhance the heritage values of those locations and that the new controls do not apply to land that contains:
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• a heritage item (local or state), or
• an Aboriginal object, or
• a site within an Aboriginal place of heritage significance, or
• archaeological sites.
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In short, the standard heritage assessment framework has not been affected by the TOD Program around transport hubs for now. Any proposed development will be assessed on its merit and to its effect on the heritage significance of the area concerned.
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For these extraordinarily major reforms, the NSW government invited submissions last March from local Councils only and not from individuals or groups.
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Changes to create low and mid-rise housing
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We thank planner and former committee member of the Walter Burley Griffin Society, Tatjana Djuric-Simovic for her careful analysis of the proposed reforms to the planning laws, and drafting the Society’s submission to the NSW government.
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The submission acknowledges that the NSW Government proposed changes to the NSW planning system are in response to the housing crisis in Sydney. However the proposed broad brush, indiscriminate up-zonings claiming that the private sector will deliver trickle down housing affordability is ill-founded, simplistic and has not analysed the impact on our built, tangible urban heritage. The proposed reforms as exhibited Dec to Feb 2024 would have, if implemented, far reaching and irreparably damaging consequences to NSW’s heritage.
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The Society’s submission stated the Government must deliver a more strategic approach and protection for our heritage. It appealed to the NSW government to follow the recommendation outlined in the third Productivity Commission’s paper (pg.41, 3.3 Balance heritage with renewal, diversity, and vibrancy):
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We need a state-wide strategic vision for heritage protection, as well as a mechanism for achieving it. The NSW Government’s Heritage Strategy, under development at the time of writing, is an opportunity to define what is most significant and to explore options to ensure we meet both heritage and housing supply objectives.
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The Society’s submission strongly objected to the proposed planning reform, and stated that the heritage strategy for NSW should be completed first so it can then inform the urban renewal policy to ensure that new housing will actually be located in “the right places”. The important architectural and urban heritage across Sydney Region must be preserved, including not only free-standing buildings but also key heritage conservation areas. The Society’s submission concluded by stating the Government must deliver a more strategic approach, and protection for our heritage.
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The Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure (DPHI) are still considering feedback received during public exhibition. On their web site, the DPHI state they will finalise the reforms for low and mid-rise housing by mid-2024 through changes to planning legislation.
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Parliamentary inquiry into the Development of the Transport Orientated Development Program
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In mid-May the NSW Legislative Council Planning and Environment Committee held an Inquiry into the development of the TOD Program, and received over 200 submissions. Many Local Councils, the National Trust, Total Environment Centre and the Better Planning Network (BPN) were among those who were invited to appear before the Committee on 20 May 2024, to give evidence.
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Christiane Berlioz represented BPN at the inquiry. She stated that the Government's TOD along with developers and yimbys deliberately undermine the principles of the EP&A Act and best practices in planning. Although the Minister has no obligation to exhibit a SEPP, as the reforms result in the most extensive State-led rezoning policies ever, she said the lack of exhibition of the SEPPs is unacceptable. There has been no genuine consultation, and the TOD was a fait accompli. She covered three key points - the completely flawed planning process; the complete disregard for heritage; the complete disregard for the environment.
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Cameron House, Killara, Sydney, 2012. Photographed by Michael Thomson
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As the Walter Burley Griffin Society is a member of BPN, Christiane spoke for the Society expressing concern for the future of the heritage-listed Cameron House, which is located within 400 metres of Killara station. Six pages in the Visionaries in Suburbia book document its significance. The single-storey house faces south. If surrounded by six storey (22 to 24 metre) buildings the house and survival of its gardens, which are integral to its heritage values, will be threatened by overbearing buildings and overshadowing.
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National Library of Australia’s digitisation of Marion Mahony Griffin’s booklets of plant listings
Marion Mahony Griffin’s passion for the native flowers of Australia is now accessible to a much broader audience following the digitisation by the National Library of Australia (NLA) of her booklets of plant listings, held in the Eric Nicholls collection.
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Compiled by Mahony from 1916 to 1920, these eight hand-bound booklets list Australian plants. They are colour themed, with two booklets each for the colours yellow, red, blue and white. Thanks to the generosity of the Friends of the National Library, following a talk given by Society committee member Glenda Korporaal, the booklets have been digitised and are now available online.
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Five of Marion Mahony Griffin's plant booklets at the National Library of Australia on display for a special viewing by members of the Walter Burley Griffin Society in 2013.
Photographed by Adrienne Kabos
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“Digitising this collection was an important project for the Library because it met a number of our thematic digitisation priorities by increasing representation of women and the environment in the Library’s online collection,” the National Library’s Collections Branch said. “The remainder of the Nicholls collection was digitised thanks to the support of another generous donor and is also available online.”
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In May 1916 Mahony wrote in a letter to her sister, Georgine, in Chicago, that she was “doing mostly listing of native plants for planting now for both private work and the Federal Capital.” Mahony initially worked on the books as the Griffins were preparing for the plantings of Newman College in Melbourne, but with the idea that the work could also be used for Canberra.
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Griffin had the initial idea of planting the hills of Canberra with different coloured plants. However, this ambitious plan was unsuccessful due to the difficulty of getting a broad range of Australian flowers to grow in the Canberra climate, although it did get some traction in the Red Hill area.
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Grave of Walter Burley Griffin in Lucknow, India to receive Australian government attention
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The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Penny Wong, in May provided welcome advice to the Canberra chapter, confirming that the Australian High Commission in New Delhi can assist with the maintenance of this gravesite. Prior to 2024, there were three attempts by Australian interests at remediation. The first was in 2012 (for Canberra's Centenary); the second in 2020 by a personal visit by then ACT Assembly Member, Mr Deepak Raj Gupta, and the third in 2023 by Professor Peter Stanley of UNSW Canberra.
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Left: Walter Burley Griffin's grave in Lucknow in 2020. Photograph by Deepak-Raj Gupta.
At right, the grave after maintenance and repainting of the railings, 2024.
Photograph by Prateek Hira
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Through Professor Stanley, I was introduced to the number one Griffin fan in Lucknow: Mr Prateek Hira, a significant figure in Uttar Pradesh and Indian tourism. He readily agreed to look after the gravesite and has since cleared surrounding weeds and re-painted the railings: easily affected by Indian atmospheric conditions. Mr Hira undertook this at his own expense and refused compensation, though I have sent him several books on the Griffins in appreciation. He also plans floral tributes on Walter’s birthday (24 November) and death (11 February).
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We are now considering an additional plaque for the gravesite, explaining who Walter was and why he came to die in Lucknow in 1937. We expect to pay for it from Australian funds. We have also made a very welcome contact at the Australian High Commission in New Delhi. I would hope for continuing interest, especially when the extra plaque is unveiled.
Peter Graves, Chair, Canberra Chapter
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Walkabout 1960 edition
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We send thanks to Kolleen Wallace who has kindly donated a magazine to the Society's collection. It is the Walkabout August 1960 edition with a fascinating article titled 'Griffin and his Castlecrag', by Brett Hilder. With its accompanying photographs, it contains interesting descriptions of, and insights into, the early days of Castlecrag and its unique cosmopolitan community. "Castlecrag was not only unique in its design of roads, houses and gardens, but also in the fact that it was a community. Every house had one very large living room for social gatherings, lectures, plays, discussions and other group activities. A minimum of space was left for cooking, eating, washing and sleeping .... Although the Griffins influenced only a small number of people, their impact was vital, and pointed the path to an Australian way of living against formal European traditions."
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Review and regeneration of Anzac Parade, Canberra ACT
The Society thanks Brett Odgers for his extensive research and this in-depth paper, a summary of which is below or linked to the Society's website is a pdf of the full article with all references. In this paper Brett Odgers discusses the history, values, functions and past reviews of Anzac Parade. He suggests the status quo of the Parade is no longer suitable for Canberra as a city and the nation’s capital. It has great potential for a higher level of excellence in response to contemporary demands and opportunities.
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In the wake of public debate over the extensions to the Australian War Memorial, it is time for review and regeneration of Anzac Parade. Indeed, Heritage Management Plans have recently (2022) been updated by the National Capital Authority (NCA) for Anzac Parade and the Parliament House Vista.
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The Parade is a centrepiece and icon of the evolving National Capital and relevant to a spectrum of political, demographic, social and cultural changes in the rapidly growing city.
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National Capital Plan and National Heritage List
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Anzac Parade is on the National Heritage List ‘for cultural, aesthetic and ceremonial significance’ and the Parliament House Vista is on the Commonwealth Heritage List as ‘the central designed landscape of Canberra, expressing Walter Burley Griffin’s design vision.’ The National Capital Plan enshrines Griffin’s winning plan and vision for the national capital, especially as a city in harmony with the landscape and symbolic of the natural environment, values, ideals, history and achievements of the nation.
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The Australian War Memorial and the Memorial Parade/Anzac Parade are bracketed together on the National Heritage List with this inscription:
‘Anzac Parade, as part of the Parliamentary Vista and as an extension of the Australian War Memorial, has a deep symbolism for many Australians, and has become part of one of the major cultural landscapes of Australia. The notion of a ceremonial space of this grandeur is not found elsewhere and Anzac Parade is nationally important for its public and commemorative functions.’
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Professor Ken Taylor has written extensively about Canberra the city in the landscape along with the symbolism of Griffin’s design and, in particular, eloquently about Anzac Parade as a ‘landscape of memory’:
‘It is one of the great landscape axes of the world. The serendipitous outcome is that Griffin’s Land Axis maintains its national symbolic status in a dual way. One as part of Griffin’s ideal city, the other as national memory.’ [1]
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Sally Barnes, NCA Chief Executive said: ‘The Australian War Memorial talks to Anzac Parade’ [2] During an ABC Local Radio 666 interview on 24 November 2021, Sally Barnes also said ‘Griffin envisaged the Land Axis north of the Lake should be for the people.’
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Origins and reviews of Anzac Parade
At the direction of Griffin and Charles Weston, Griffin’s Plaisance or Parkway was planted with trees and shrubs and walkways. The site for the Australian War Memorial was determined by the Federal Capital Advisory Committee in 1923. Griffin’s Prospect Parkway was renamed Anzac Park in 1928 by the Canberra National Memorials Committee.
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The Parkway planned by Griffin and planted with trees and gardens by Charles Weston, with the War Memorial, Mount Ainslie and at the left the suburb of Reid in the 1940s.
The Parkway was where Anzac Parade is now. Photograph courtesy Brett Odgers
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‘New visions’ for Anzac Parade were explored by the National Capital Development Commission (NCDC) in the 1960s and for the 50th celebrations of Gallipoli in 1965 they reconstructed and renamed the ‘processional way’ Anzac Parade /Anzac Park. Clough and Harrison of NCDC replaced Weston’s trees with Tasmanian Blue Gums and planter boxes of New Zealand shrubs.
A radical redesign of Anzac Parade was proposed in the early 1990s by the National Capital Planning Authority (NCPA). [3] An open competition yielded ‘four finalist teams of highly experienced Australian architects, landscape architects and other designers.’ The winning Daryl Jackson Architects’ plan displayed intensive parklands whilst keeping the open Land Axis vista. Anzac Parade was assessed to be ‘a place that needs to be engaged with directly – to walk, look and reflect.’ …
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In September 1991 NCPA held a Seminar on Landscape in the Central National Area (with Reid, Jackson, Giurgola, Weirick, Johnson and Stretton) that led to the Central National Area Design Study 1994-95 report Looking to the Future (1994). [5] …
The 1991 Seminar discussed Daryl Jackson’s winning design for Anzac Parade: he argued ‘landscape alone cannot assume the burden of meaning and symbolism we expect of the National Capital.’ He designed parterres, walks and garden beds on the ‘undistinguished strip’, imagery of the States in the federation and attractive parkland inviting ‘people, concerts, meetings, gatherings, festivals.’ [7]
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There have been no more reviews or redesigns since 1990-91. The NCPA project looks like a missed opportunity.
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Looking south along the 1.5km length of the unrelieved austere Anzac Parade. A vast area that presents great potential for impressive landscaping to provide parkland, gardens, walkways, accessibility, relaxation and recreation, March 2020. Photographed by Luke Wensing
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In an ACT Heritage Week 2004 public talk, Graeme Trickett, former senior Heritage bureaucrat, called for Anzac Parade to be ‘restored as a park with no more militarisation.’ For some years observers have noted with concern diminution of Central Canberra parkland, whilst population and employment are increasing. …
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Original Griffin Plan
At the NCPA Seminar James Weirick highlighted Griffin’s plan, the Prospect Parkway with Casino at the base of Mt Ainslie, a parkland Plaisance along the Land Axis derived from Frederick Law Olmsted Snr’s Midway Plaisance in Chicago and the Casino, modeled on Frank Lloyd Wright’s Midway Gardens, drawing people for relaxation, recreation, concerts and popular entertainment. Professor Weirick was not sure we need to continue the solemnity of the War Memorial throughout the Parade and regretted the ‘desert-like emptiness and lack of people.’ [8] …
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Stakeholders and users of Anzac Parade
The Parade is not regularly used for commemorative purposes. There are only two annual ceremonial days: Anzac and Remembrance. The crunch of marching boots is rarer still as marching bands have been banned in favour of broadcast marching music for the Veterans’ March on Anzac Day. …
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Parade Stakeholders include future generations. The latter are already rapidly arriving as residents along Constitution Avenue, in Section 5 Campbell and prospective redevelopment in Reid. Parklands and open space are diminishing in the city and inner north suburbs. The location and nature of ‘the processional way’ is incongruous in this rapidly developing scenario, which is more-or-less the residential density, areas and amenities envisaged by Griffin. The NCA seems more concerned with ‘screening’ such housing, than restoring or creating valuable parkland and amenity for a burgeoning population. …
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Landscape values, aesthetics and symbolism
The long, red gravel parade strip is incongruous and ugly, a distraction compared with the alternatives conceived by Griffin, Weston and the NCPA expert reviews in the early 1990s of public walkways, native flora, gardens and parkland, which can convey the symbolism of the Australian natural environment, ethos and identity, the Land Axis and The Parliament House Vista.
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It is a vast area and presents great potential for development as impressive landscape providing parkland, gardens, walkways, accessibility, relaxation and recreation, culture and the arts and to enhance the Land Axis with its national symbolism.
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Aldo Giurgola and Ken Taylor have both drawn attention to the potential of the Parade to convey the elements of the Australian bush and wildlife. Scientifically, it is an urban wildlife corridor. Anzac Parade is presently ‘replete with symbols’, but has also great potential for non-military features and non-military purposes and events. [17]
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It would not be difficult to redesign, relandscape and regenerate Anzac Parade whilst retaining a marching parade. Anzac Parade is 1.5 ks in length and 200 m wide . The northern intersecting side streets – Blamey Crescent, Currong Street/Geerilong Gardens and East and West Anzac Parks allow ample space for marching groups to form up … The impending rebuild of the approach and forecourt of the AWM enlarges these options. The commemorative memorials would be unaffected and given improved settings, access and safety.
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Responsibility, approvals and accountability
The Parade and its environs have a fascinating and stimulating history and prospects. During the various Griffins’ Canberra tours conducted by the Walter Burley Griffin Society, the Griffins’ vision for Anzac Parade never fails to register interest and delight with tourists and Society members alike.
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Anzac Parade warrants a review of its heritage values and potential for regeneration beyond status quo updates of Heritage Management Plans. With the increasing population and density of Canberra, high expectations for its role as the national capital and heritage conservation of Griffin’s Land Axis, there are opportunities to diversify and enhance the uses of this national land.
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The Walter Burley Griffin Society Canberra Chapter submitted this proposal dated 11 May 2021 to the NCA in public consultations April-May 2021 on Anzac Parade – Heritage Management Plan (September 2020 Consultants Draft). The revised Heritage Management Plan, approved by the NCA Board, was published dated September 2022.
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At their invitation, Brett Odgers, on behalf of the WBGS, met with Ms Sally Barnes, Chief Executive, and senior planning and heritage officers of the NCA, on 21 December 2023 to discuss the proposal, including ‘making it more of a green space and pedestrian walkway and garden.’. Potential options and reshaping of the Parade were discussed.
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Mr Odgers was notified by NCA 16 January 2024 that ‘the HMP does not propose changes to Anzac Parade that would adversely affect the listed heritage values. There are currently no plans to commence a review of the heritage values under the EPBC Act.
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Alternative futures
It appears that the NCA is not consulting with the ACT Government planning agencies by averting their gaze from the rapid residential development, losses of open space, recreational amenities and parkland and prospective tourism growth in the Anzac Parade precinct. The report A Capital for All Australians into fostering and promoting the significance of Australia’s National Capital by the Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee (May 2024) coinciding with the NCA’s approval of the expansion of the Australian War Memorial, presages ever greater tourism and visits to the AWM.
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The NCA appears also not to have assessed the aesthetic impacts of the brutal, controversial reconfiguration of the new AWM South Entrance front wall and commemorative Parade Ground looking down on, and accentuated by, an unrelieved austere Anzac Parade strip and six-lane avenue. How immeasurably enhanced could the latter be if converted to recreational parkland? At the same time, the ACT planning authorities should be alert to the demographic and land use imperatives. It is a project which should command the best collaborative efforts of the NCA, Commonwealth agencies and the ACT Government.
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Ranelagh Estate: a Griffin legacy in Mount Eliza, Victoria
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2025 will mark the centenary of Ranelagh Estate
In 1922 John Edmund Taylor, a Melbourne timber merchant, purchased a tract of land comprising 280 acres of farmland and its homestead Nyora. This property was ideally suited to John Taylor’s vision for the development of a housing estate with sporting and recreational facilities. Taylor was further encouraged by the electrification of the railway to the nearby town of Frankston, and his plan for this investment was to convert the pastoral Nyora Estate into a country club by the sea where professional men and their families from Melbourne could holiday, building their own holiday houses on the Estate or staying in the old Nyora homestead. Taylor’s partner, in this and other ventures, was J. (Australia) Sharp, a fellow timber merchant with whom he founded the company Sequoia Pty Ltd to design the seaside estate, market the residential blocks and manage its early development, to be called Ranelagh Estate.
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Involvement of the Griffins
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The architects commissioned to design Ranelagh were Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin. The directors of Sequoia had the imagination, foresight, and capital, to develop this new residential estate in accordance with the Griffins’ ideals. It was named “Ranelagh”, possibly in recognition of the famous 18th century “Ranelagh Gardens” in Chelsea, just outside London, considered to be a fashionable holiday resort. The concept was to create a country club estate by the sea which would offer a fine quality of life for its residents, with the original homestead retained as a guest house and focus for social life.
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Wimbledon Avenue, Ranelagh, 2006. Photographed by Meg Breidahl
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The Griffins produced a concept plan designed to complement the topography of the area. The Griffins were engaged with town planner and surveyor Saxil Tuxen to produce a Plan of Subdivision. Tuxen was a founding member of the Victorian Town Planning Association and worked in the surveying practice of his Danish–born father, succeeding to the practice on his father’s death in 1913. The practice had some 40 years’ experience in the subdivision of suburban land throughout Melbourne. Indeed, Tuxen designed several estates on the Mornington Peninsula, including the Quinn Estate in Mount Eliza.
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A true garden suburb - the original framework
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The design was based on clearly defined principles unique to the true garden suburb which included a hierarchy of roads and thoroughfares, shaped in curvilinear fashion to follow the slopes of the land rather than the more usual grid patterns; for larger estates, zones for differing uses should be clearly defined; patterns of streets and reserves designed to take advantage of or create new vistas and views; retention of natural vegetation and dedicated areas of open space convenient to all lots (usually more than 10% of the total area).
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This was the Griffins’ third Melbourne subdivision and by this time the garden suburb idea had been in existence for at least 30 years in Australia and the public had become accustomed to and clearly understood the many important principles of garden suburb design. The Griffins and Saxil Tuxen shared the same ideas of incorporation of the environment into the design, rather than imposing the development on the landscape. The plan gave the estate “distinctive long curved roads, recreation reserves, internal reserves, and spacious triangular traffic islands, which were designed to harmonise with the topography of the land.”
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Ranelagh Estate, Victoria, 1916-1920, Walter Burley Griffin.
NLA PIC Row 14/3/6 #PIC/9929/2798
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The subdivision plans were lodged by the solicitor for Sequoia Company, John W. McComas, in 1924 and stamped as approved in 1925. Ranelagh Estate was envisaged as a place where professional people would build their holiday houses in an area where the retention of existing vegetation would be encouraged.
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Recreational facilities, parks and internal reserves would be provided, and every block would have a view of the sea. Residents would share the benefit of 13 private park reserves: the largest would provide for cricket, croquet, tennis and polo and the internal reserves behind housing lots would provide natural safe havens. A golf course would adjoin the estate and a small, sheltered beach on Port Philip Bay was there for swimming, boating, and fishing. An area near the entrance and opposite the two Mount Eliza stores on the corner of Boundary Road (now Canadian Bay Road) and Point Nepean Road (now Mount Eliza Way) was set aside for shops and other commercial uses. Ranelagh Estate was intended to be largely self sufficient.
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Ranelagh's shoreline, 2006. Photographed by Meg Breidahl
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The stage was now set for the launch of Ranelagh Estate to the targeted public. A lavishly illustrated and expansively descriptive sales brochure and a handbill briefly extolling the virtues of Ranelagh were produced and H.V. Palmer & Co. were engaged to sell the lots by private sale.
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The history of the Estate and the Club are inextricably woven together from the outset, so inevitably the history of Ranelagh Club must be included in the history of Ranelagh Estate. The first general meeting of the new Ranelagh Club was held on the afternoon of Tuesday 18th August in the lounge of Scotts Hotel in Melbourne. The 50 or so people invited to attend had made commitments to purchase land following the subdivision of the Estate. The meeting, attended by 39 people, was chaired by Brigadier General Blamey. It was proposed by Mr. McComas, seconded by Mr. Barlow, that a Club be formed for the purpose set out in the Memorandum of Association exhibited by Mr. McComas at the meeting and that the Club be called the Ranelagh Club.
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An active community has fostered and encouraged the development of the estate
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Over the last 100 years Ranelagh has changed from a seaside country club estate into a residential suburb of Greater Melbourne, catering for mostly permanent residents. The natural and cultural values of Ranelagh Estate have been largely protected, as has the integrity of the Griffin/Tuxen plan. This was recognized by the Victorian Government when, on 12 May 2005, it added Ranelagh Estate to the Victorian Heritage Register: VHR H1605.
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M.Breidahl, D.Dick, V.Grounds
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Vales
Vale Carrick Chambers AM 1930 – 2023
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Carrick Chambers, 1994. Photographer David Moore
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The Society was fortunate and greatly honoured to have Emeritus Professor Carrick Chambers as its Patron for over ten years until 2014, benefiting greatly from his expertise and very warm community spirit.
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Carrick was born in Auckland, NZ and in 1954, graduated MSc from the Auckland University College. In 1959 he married Margaret Davis. A year later Carrick completed a PhD at the University of Sydney, and received a CSIRO overseas postgraduate scholarship to Cambridge. Here Carrick trained in electron microscopy in the botany school and the Cavendish Laboratory, at the time when the structure of DNA was being deciphered. Returning with Margaret to Australia in 1961, Carrick took a position in the University of Melbourne’s botany department. A year later twins were born, the first of four children. In 1967 Carrick became one of the university's youngest professors and later chaired the botany department.
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Carrick was involved in establishing the Potter Farmland Plan in Victoria to restore over-cleared land and declining farmland. The plan promoted using native plants to reduce erosion and boost productivity. It became the international program Landcare.
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In 1986 Carrick and Margaret relocated to Sydney where Carrick took up the directorship of the Royal Botanic Gardens. In the ten years as Director, he initiated and oversaw the building of the tropical centre and fernery at the Gardens, and the opening and development of the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden Mount Tomah, formerly a cut-flower farm, and the Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan, formerly farmland. He also helped establish new gardens in the Hunter Valley, Orange and Taree.
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In 1994, after David Noble brought a then unknown conifer specimen from the Wollemi National Park to the herbarium, Carrick became the key to identifying it. He recognised it as like one of the fossils he and graduate student Andrew Drinnan had classified in the 1970s. Further research by Drinnan and others led to the declaration of a new genus, Wollemi (the plant being named Wollemi nobilis) in December 1994 and its subsequent propagation.
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In 1998, Carrick was awarded an AM for “service to botany and its application to horticulture as Director of Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain, Sydney, and as a teacher and researcher on conservation issues and botanical concepts”. His interests continued in his later years, and in 2019, after researching the taxonomy of Blechnum ferns, with a colleague Dr Peter Wilson, he published his last scientific paper.
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Carrick joined the committee of the Society not long after he retired from the Royal Botanical Gardens. He represented the Society on Willoughby City Council’s Griffin Reserves Advisory Committee for many years, and was the Society’s wonderful, and very conscientious Patron, stepping down in 2014. We were very grateful for his friendship, and for his generosity in sharing his time and expertise with the Society.
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Vale Barbara (Babs) Ground 1933 – 2023
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Left: Babs Ground and her late husband Alex Ground, 1980's. Photographed by Richard Wallace. Right: Planting a Scribbly Gum at Casement Reserve, Castlecrag in 2024 in honour of Babs. Photographed by Vicki Craig
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Barbara (Babs) Ground passed away on 19 October 2023, a month after her 90th birthday. For many decades, Babs and her late husband Alex Ground were proud custodians of the Griffin-designed Felstead House at Castlecrag, and on multiple occasions made it available for Society events and open days. Their daughter Vicki and her husband Giles Craig have continued this tradition since they bought the house in 2018.
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Barbara Ann Reading was born in Forbes, the fourth daughter of farmer and Gallipoli veteran Cecil Reading and his American wife, Helen Wylde. Growing up in country NSW, at age 11 Babs followed her sisters to boarding school at SCEGGS Moss Vale.
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In 1952 her parents bought the Felstead House in Edinburgh Road, Castlecrag as a ‘fixer-upper’ - her father’s retirement project. Babs lived there whilst she trained as a speech therapist (an emerging profession).
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Following several years’ work Babs went to Europe, travelled extensively and, shortly after her return, married Alex Ground, thinking he was a city boy. After five children and 45 years of farming in New Zealand, Babs and Alex returned to Sydney in 1992 and moved into the Felstead House. Together they undertook much maintenance and restoration work to the knitlock house, following the original plans and specifications. Renovation work included the commissioning of replicas of the original windows to replace the non-original plain casements and the external french doors. Babs was a very keen gardener with an affinity for native plants. She devoted much time to the Felstead gardens, nurturing them into showpieces to complement the house.
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Babs was a community representative on Willoughby City Council’s Griffin Reserves Advisory Group (GRAG) for five years in her early eighties, attending all the site inspections, even on the steep slopes of the Griffin Reserves. She volunteered as a bushcarer at Casement Reserve, Castlecrag, working with a small team of volunteers for 20 years until shortly before her death. To commemorate Babs’ life and contributions to the community, a Scribbly Gum was planted in her honour at Casement Reserve earlier this year.
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Vale Jeremy Davis AM FRSN 1943 – 2023
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Jeremy Davis, 2008. Photographed by Jessica Milner Davis
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Generous supporter and long-time member of the Society, Emeritus Professor Jeremy Davis AM died suddenly in June 2023, aged 80. Jeremy had a very distinguished career and was still working as a consultant at the time of his death.
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After graduating from the University of Sydney as University Medallist in Accounting in 1964, Jeremy won a travelling scholarship to undertake an MBA at Stanford University and went on to become a Teaching Fellow in Economics there. In 1970 Jeremy was recruited by the founders of the new and rapidly growing Boston Consulting Group (BCG). A year later he married Jessica Milner, whom he had met when he was a student leader at University of Sydney, and Jessica was a student leader at University of New South Wales. Jessica had just completed her PhD and after marrying in Sydney, they moved from Boston to France where Jeremy helped set up BCG’s Paris office. This was followed by establishing their office in San Francisco.
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In 1980 Jeremy was recruited by UNSW to lead the new Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM). Under his deanship, AGSM became known for its rigour and critical debate and strong links with business, was recognised as Australia’s leading business school and played a pivotal role in shaping the landscape of management education in Australia. In 1989 he stepped down as Dean but continued as Professor of Strategic Management. Although Jeremy retired from UNSW in 2006, he continued to provide his unique knowledge of both the business and education sectors as a company director for ASX-listed companies and venture capital firms for many years, always bringing a strong sense of ethics and social justice to the table. Jeremy was a generous and engaged supporter of many Indigenous, environmental and artistic non-profit organisations, and this extended also to the Society.
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Jeremy and Jessica were proud custodians of the Griffin-designed Grant House in Castlecrag, first in the 1980s when it was very run down and also after they purchased the house again in 2015. They commissioned a complete historical report, including the various floorplans developed since the house was built in 1921. This report was to provide a guide to the restoration of many aspects of the house’s original Griffin details.
The 2018 AGM talk, Unmasking the Grant House, by guest speakers heritage architect Matthew Bennett and owner Jessica Milner Davis, traced the history of the Grant House. At the conclusion of the talk, the house was open for a special viewing. Later in 2018, Jeremy and Jessica very kindly opened their home again for a celebration of the Society’s 30th anniversary. They were also very generous supporters of Visionaries in Suburbia, enabling with others the publication of this book in 2015.
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Vale Ian Stapleton 1951 – 2023
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Architect Ian Stapleton was deeply committed to heritage conservation. Of specific interest to the Society was his advice on the maintenance and restoration of the Griffin-designed Winter House at Telopea, Sydney.
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As long-time partner in Lucas Stapleton Johnston (formerly Clive Lucas Stapleton & Partners), Ian was responsible for the restoration and also sensitive adaptation of numerous buildings in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia. This included the adaptive reuse of the Woolloomooloo Finger Wharf; Walsh Bay Precinct wharves; Sydney’s General Post Office; and also restoration of Boronia House, Mosman; Bronte House for Waverley Council; Harper’s Mansion, Berrima for the National Trust; Victoria Barracks, Paddington; the old MLC Building, Martin Place, Sydney; the Old Swan Brewery, Perth; Blackdown Homestead, Bathurst; Her Majesty’s Theatre, Ballarat; the Trust Building, Castlereagh Street, Sydney; cricketer Don Bradman’s childhood home, Bowral and many more historic properties throughout Australia.
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After completing school in Orange, NSW and graduating dux of his year, Ian studied architecture at the University of Sydney where he met his future wife Maisy. After graduating with first class honours, Ian worked for a short time in the NSW Public Works Department, then joined Fisher Lucas architects in 1977. Ian became a partner in Clive Lucas Stapleton & Partners in 1983, the heritage architectural firm that later became Lucas, Stapleton, Johnson and Partners Pty Ltd, known as LSJ Architects.
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Ian wrote a number of books on building restoration and Australian house styles, and with his wife and partner Maisy Stapleton authored a series of articles on the same subjects, published in the Sydney Morning Herald in the early 1980s. In 1983 he received an RAIA award for architectural journalism.
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Active on committees, Ian was Chairman of the Historic Buildings Committee of the RAIA (NSW Chapter) from 1983 to 1988. Ian was also President of Australia ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments & Sites) from 1992 to 1994. Later, over a three year period, he worked on the organisation and completion of The Illustrated Burra Charter, an internationally respected practical guide focused on continuing use of historic places and their landscapes and gardens.
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Ian was a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects, a consultant advisor to the Heritage Office of Western Australia and the Heritage Office of NSW, and in May 2023, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Trust of Australia (NSW). He achieved so much in the conservation of heritage and leaves an amazing legacy.
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Vale Paul Sprague 1933 – 2023
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One of the founding members of the Walter Burley Griffin Society of America, Professor Emeritus Paul Sprague passed away in December 2023. He was one of the key speakers at the Griffin symposium held in Urbana, USA in 1997 and in Melbourne, Australia in 1998. Following the symposium, and inspired by the Walter Burley Griffin Society in Australia, Peter Burley Griffin was joined by Paul Kruty and Paul Sprague in planning and announcing the first meeting of the WBGS of America in 2000. Paul Sprague served on the board until 2017.
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Paul received his PH.D in Art and Architectural History from Princeton University. He taught Art and Architectural History at a number of universities in the Mid West, USA and was a professor emeritus of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His firm, Historic Preservation Services, served many clients in the Midwest. Paul Sprague was a long-time member of Society of Architectural Historians (USA) and served on its Board of Directors from 1982 to 1985.
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Paul was the author of numerous books and articles on early modern architects and the architecture of Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, the Griffins and the Prairie School. As Paul Kruty writes in the recent newsletter of the WBGS of America, “Uncovering the many secrets of these incredible architects remained a shared passion of Paul Sprague’s and mine, eventually leading to a shared commitment to the work of Walter Burley Griffin”. Together they wrote Two American Architects in India, Walter B. Griffin and Marion M. Griffin 1935 – 1937 published by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1997.
Sprague co-authored Marion Mahony and Millikin Place which was the WBGS of America’s first publication. He contributed to the second and third publications, on the Stinson Library, and Rock Crest/Rock Glen.
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Membership renewal for 2024 / 2025 is due in July 2024
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Postal address
c/- 140 Edinburgh Road
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